The AC machine is used to safely and legally remove the refrigerant from a charged system. It is against the law to willfully vent any type of refrigerant from an AC system. This machine can also provide diagnostic information because it accurately measures the amount of refrigerant that is removed from a system. This is helpful to the individual working on the AC system because it lets him or her know if the system was overcharged or undercharged with refrigerant. The following are the steps for recovering the refrigerant.
Steps to Recover Refrigerant
A typical AC machine is critical to have when safely and legally repairing the AC system on cars and trucks. This tool recovers, filters, evacuates, charges, adds oil, and leak tests the AC
1. Connect the blue service hose to the low side service port and turn the blue knob clockwise to depress the check valve to allow refrigerant to flow.
The low side service port is a 13-mm quick-connect coupling. The blue hose on the AC machine snaps into place like a pneumatic connection. The knob is then turned clockwise to open the check valve in the service
2. Connect the red service hose to the high service port and turn the red knob clockwise to depress the check valve to allow refrigerant to flow.
The high side service port is a 16-mm quick-connect coupling. The red hose on the AC machine also snaps into place like a pneumatic connection. The knob is then turned clockwise to open the check valve in the service
3. Turn the power button on and let the machine warm up.
4. Start the recovery process by pressing the recover button.
The recover button on the display should be pressed to begin the recovery process. The refrigerant is removed, filtered, and weighed during the recovery
5. After the machine goes through a clearing process, it begins to remove the refrigerant from the AC system, and it will show how much refrigerant is being removed from the system.
The recovery process removes, filters, and weighs the refrigerant from the vehicle. The display shows a constant readout of the amount of refrigerant that is being
The AC machine runs through a warm-up process when the power is turned on. The display shows the refrigerant amount that is contained in the machine to let the operator know the level before connecting to a
The pressure gauges will begin to drop as the refrigerant is being drawn from the vehicle.
6. The machine will continue the recovery process until the pressure drops into a vacuum and then the display will say “complete” and it will show how much refrigerant has been removed.
The machine will display that the recovery process is complete as well as the total amount of refrigerant that was removed from the vehicle. The machine will also remind the operator to check the oil bottle to determine how much refrigerant oil was removed during the process. Typically, very little oil is pulled out during the recovery
The low side gauge will read in the vacuum range and the high side gauge will read 0 after the AC system has been
7. The display will check the oil bottle to see if any refrigerant oil was removed during the process. Very little oil is removed during this process on most vehicles. Any measurable oil that is removed during recovery needs to be added back to the system before completing the repair.
The oil bottle shows that very little refrigerant oil was removed during the recovery process. This bottle should be checked after each system is recovered to monitor the amount of oil that was removed during
8. The power can be turned off and the service hoses can be removed while making repairs to the AC system. Many of the most common repairs that can be made to the AC system will be covered in chapter
